WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE TEACHING OF THE PRE-TRIBULATION RAPTURE

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE TEACHING OF THE
PRE-TRIBULATION RAPTURE
Copyright Š 2006 Trumpet Ministries, Inc.
All Rights Reserved

Some Scripture (as noted) taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW
INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright Š 973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by
permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.

In numerous Christian churches the main preaching has to
do with unconditional grace and the pre-tribulation rapture. In our point of view these
two doctrine are major heresies and have produced morally weak, silly believers who are in
no manner prepared to return with Christ and govern the saved nations of the earth.

We must return to the preaching of the Gospel of the
Kingdom of God. We must begin to make disciples of all nations by teaching them to keep
the commandments of Christ and His Apostles. This is the Great Commission.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE TEACHING OF THE
PRE-TRIBULATION RAPTURE

My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but
that you protect them from the evil one. (John 17:15—NIV)

I understand what I have to say will provoke
consternation, anger, and perhaps confusion, and so I do not take computer in hand lightly
on this topic.

For many years I have written concerning the
pre-tribulation rapture error. I have examined the arguments concerning it and its
history. I have seen its effect on the believers. I have found the arguments supporting it
to be contrived and unsound scripturally. The pre-tribulation rapture doctrine, with its
teaching that the catching up of the saints is for the purpose of avoiding tribulation,
from my point of view is not logical, given the fact that Christians have suffered
terribly throughout the Church Era and yet today are being tortured and killed. Also, once
we have been resurrected there is no need to flee into the spirit realm to avoid being
hurt.

We Christians claim to believe in the full verbal
inspiration of the authentic Hebrew and Greek manuscripts. Yet we persist in teaching that
the Lord is coming to "catch up His waiting bride to Heaven." Not only is such a
concept not emphasized in the Bible, it is not presented one time. Neither is there any
passage that states clearly the believers will be removed from the earth to avoid
suffering. Not one passage!

A pastor said recently that the "rapture"
doctrine is demonic in origin, its purpose being to promote complacency among the
believers. Can he be correct? There is no question that the doctrine promotes complacency.
If you don’t believe this try warning the believers to prepare themselves to stand in
the evil day. They will tell you in effect that there will be no evil day for them because
they "won’t be here." They may also become angry.

How unscriptural can you get?

I notice that when the doctrine of the "rapture"
is challenged its advocates often become threatened and angry instead of reasonable,
causing me to believe some kind of spirit is involved.

An incident happened yesterday that kindled the old fires.
Our youth pastor told me of a young man, a teenager in fact, who recently attended a young
people’s meeting. The pastor supervising the meeting sat down next to him and asked
him if he believed in the "rapture." I guess the pastor could sense there was
something "wrong" with the young fellow.

The young man, having heard some teaching to the contrary,
said he was unsure.

The pastor then opened his Bible and began to
"prove" the truth of the pre-tribulation rapture.

I become angry when anyone tries to indoctrinate young
people. I am as bad as the proponents of the "rapture," in this respect. I had
best continue to be reasonable.

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees,
you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes
one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are." (Matthew 23:15—NIV)

Of all the exhortations the pastor could have given a
young person, such as the necessity for moral purity, honesty, truthfulness, faithfulness,
kindness, courtesy, respect for authority, teachableness, the value of diligence,
initiative, and hard work, even a readiness to test the spirits of a meeting if the pastor
wished to get into spiritual matters, instead he brought up this miserable, decaying
aspect of Dispensationalism. (You can tell from my words that I am not favorably disposed
toward the doctrine and also am somewhat emotionally involved.)

This is the problem with Christian teaching today. Instead
of instructing the believers to keep the commandments of Christ so they may present to the
unsaved community the light of good works, of righteous behavior, of integrity, of a
morally pure life, we talk about that which is absolutely useless in meeting the needs of
God and man: grace as an excuse for lawlessness, the pre-tribulation "rapture"
of the believers to avoid suffering, how to get rich by faith, how to control the universe
by imaging and positive thinking, how to get into politics so we can force the unsaved to
keep the moral laws of God when we ourselves are not being conformed to the image of
Christ, and now how to cast aside one’s good judgment and be ready to jerk, twitch,
fall in a swoon, and bark like a dog in the assembly.

Things are going to the dogs in more ways than one.

What doctrine or experience will be next? Hard to say. But
you can be sure its effect will be to divert the thinking of the believers away from the
need for iron righteousness and integrity, fiery holiness, and stern obedience to the
Father.

Perhaps the most destructive of the current heresies is
the presentation of Divine grace as a substitute for godly behavior.

Perhaps the second most destructive of the current
heresies is the teaching that God is just about to carry the believers to Heaven so they
can escape Antichrist and the great tribulation.

I was so upset about the pastor trying to make a proselyte
of the young man that when I got home last night I asked the Lord what He thought of the
pre-tribulation rapture doctrine and what I should do about it if anything.

I expected to hear that I was to forget it and preach the
wealth of good things the Lord has revealed to me, such as the meaning of the feasts of
the Lord, the creation of the Body of Christ as the Servant of the Lord, and the work of
restoration.

Why advertise the Devil’s work?

I was quite surprised to find that the Lord was as upset
as I. In addition, when I got out of bed I found I was burdened to write another article
even though I have editing work piled up.

Now, I do not expect you to say "It must be true
because the Lord told him." No doubt I have produced scorn in many readers to this
point.

No problem! But I will tell you that after having been
deceived on a couple of occasions I pray every day several times that I will hear nothing
or think nothing that is not coming from the throne of God in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Do you do that? Very useful these days because of the
prevailing deceptions I have mentioned previously.

If you think you can’t be deceived you already are
deceived. I learned this the hard way.

It is interesting to note that some pastors have
"preparing for the rapture" meetings in which the believers jump up and down
next to their pews. This would be funny if the results were not so destructive. A far
better exercise during such a meeting would be learning to forgive those who have offended
us. Can you agree with this?

Have you seen the pictures of the cars crashing into each
other because the believers have suddenly disappeared? This is totally unscriptural and
crazy.

Did you know there is not one Scripture in the whole Bible
that teaches Christ is coming to take His waiting bride to Heaven? Not one Scripture!

Why don’t you pray and ask the Lord, just as I did.
Do you hear from the Lord?

If you do you will find that the Lord will never talk to
you about a pre-tribulation rapture to escape suffering.

Have you ever heard anyone prophesy about the
pre-tribulation rapture? No, you haven’t, and you never will. Why? Because it is not
a burden of the spirit realm, it is a mental concept, a part of the destructive model of
scriptural interpretation termed Dispensationalism.

What is the Lord talking about these days? The Lord
is talking about judgment on America if His people do not start keeping His commandments.
He is telling us to get our house in order so we may be able to stand in the age of moral
horrors that is upon us. He is advising us to lay up the good corn of His Word because we
cannot fight our way into the land of promise while eating manna.

He is urging us to prepare our young people because an
unprecedented anointing is going to come upon them so they can bear witness of Christ
throughout the whole world.

He is telling us to be prepared for the greatest revival
of all history as the Gospel of the Kingdom of God is preached for a witness to every
nation.

He is telling us to work with the Holy Spirit as our
worldliness, passions, and self-will are driven from us to prepare a place for the Father
and the Son to inhabit.

He is commanding us to present our body a living sacrifice
so we may learn to use the gifts and ministries He has placed within us.

He is telling us He has kept the good wine until now, that
it is time to get ready for the coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth.

He is exhorting us to grow in the unity of faith toward
God and in the knowledge of God’s ways, to be discipled by the written Word.

He is warning us to test the spirits because much
deception already has entered the ranks of Christian believers.

He is telling us to look to our families that the hearts
of the children may be turned toward their parents and the parents toward their children.

If you will pray and listen (God is not that far away from
you), these are the things you will hear.

You will never, never, never hear the Lord tell you that
you are about to get caught up to Heaven so you may not experience the tremendous
opportunities of the last days. The pastor or evangelist may tell you this but the Spirit
of the Lord will not because it is not true.

People write and tell me all they are hearing in the
churches is rapture, rapture, rapture, grace, grace, grace.

We who are called to teach have been commanded to make
disciples of all nations. We make disciples by teaching them the Lord’s commandments
so they may grow in the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, and then
be able to disciple others. Am I correct in this? Is this what the Lord commanded?

As we grow in the unity of the faith and the knowledge of
the Son of God we fulfill the need of God for an abode and the need of mankind for a true
and faithful witness of God in the present hour (people are in desperate need today!) and
for righteous rulers and priests in the ages to come so the people of the saved nations
may live in love, joy, peace, and security.

Are you with me this far?

Now think! If rapture, rapture, rapture, grace, grace,
grace are being preached, will this message fulfill the need that God has for a house and
mankind has for a witness and for righteous government? Not on your grandmother’s
apple pie. It will only create self-centered religionists who have little or no feeling
for the woes of the people around them, who are unable to teach people the path of life,
of righteous behavior.

Also, the doctrine of the rapture of the Gentile believers
(absolutely contrary to Paul’s teaching of the one Seed of Abraham) is anti-Semitic.
Think about it!

Jan Willem Vanderhoven’s late
wife Wida
(International Christian Embassy, Jerusalem), now with Jesus, was heard to say that if the
Jews were to be left here after the rapture she desired to stay with them. Wida was an
Arab by race. This is true Christian sentiment, not the childish remarks we are apt to
hear.

Will the saints actually be caught up to meet Jesus in the
air? Of course they will. This is what the Scripture teaches. If we would stick with the
Scripture we would be on sound ground (and also in the air some day).

What then is the problem?

Is it the timing? No. What is going to happen will happen
and we will be one hundred percent accurate after it is over. Right?

The problem is, God has a program and the concept of an
imminent "rapture" diverts our attention from the Divine schedule and its goals.

First of all, let us mention that the climax of redemption
is the resurrection, not the catching up (rapture). The catching up is not a part of
redemption and therefore not portrayed by the major types of the Old Testament. Did you
know that?

No feast of the Lord was celebrated forty days after the
resurrection, the day when Christ was caught up to be with the Father. But ten days after
that the feast of Pentecost was fulfilled as Christ sent down the Holy Spirit from Heaven.

The first resurrection from the dead, the resurrection
that will take place when the Lord appears, must be attained. The Apostle Paul was
striving to attain the out-resurrection, the first resurrection, and this toward the end
of his life. We will not participate in the out-resurrection just because we took the four
steps of salvation.

One of the major problems of today’s Christian
thinking is the ignorance of the nature of the resurrection—what is required if we
are to be raised into incorruptible life when the Lord appears. The emphasis and
reemphasis on the catching up has so confused the believers they have little or no
understanding of the resurrection, supposing that somehow the catching up and the
resurrection are the same thing. This is a gross error having profoundly destructive
consequences.

If you think Christian people understand the
resurrection, its relationship to the catching up, just ask some of them. Ask them also
what John said in the sixth chapter of his Gospel, the Apostle Paul said in the eighth
chapter of the Book of Romans, and also in the third chapter of Philippians, about what is
necessary if we are to attain resurrection life. Most of them will have no idea what you
are referring to supposing they will be resurrected and caught up "by grace."

Yet these three passages contain information that is
absolutely critical to our destiny. This ignorance stems from the fact that we are
preaching sermons to members of the Christian religion instead of teaching disciples.

Satan understands well the significance of the first
resurrection and of the coming of Christ with His saints to take charge of the nations of
the earth. By focusing the attention of the believers on being caught up into the air (in
their business suits and party dresses) Satan hopes to keep them silly and immature so
they will give no thought to returning with Christ to destroy Satan’s kingdom. This
is what Satan is after with his grace, grace, grace, rapture, rapture, rapture emphasis.

How would you like to go through the New Testament and
find the passage that says the believers will disappear and be caught up to Heaven to
avoid Antichrist and the great tribulation? You will look in vain. There is no such
passage, no not one.

But what about First Thessalonians, Chapter Four? This
so-called "rapture" passage has nothing to do with the believers disappearing or
being caught up to Heaven to live in a mansion. Rather it is a message of comfort and hope
addressed to those whose loved ones have passed away. It is the premier funeral passage of
the Scriptures.

The big gun is the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians,
the "resurrection chapter." This chapter does not mention the catching up
because the catching up is not part of the resurrection.

The resurrection has to do with the reviving of our
deceased flesh and bones and the clothing of them with our house from Heaven. This is the
omega of redemption, the climax, the destruction of the last enemy.

Do you understand the relationship between the nature of
your house from Heaven and your conduct today? Very important to understand!

After we are resurrected (how long after we do not know,
in the case of Christ it was forty days) we will be caught up to meet the Commander in
Chief in the air so we may return with Him to Jerusalem. Then Armageddon will be fought
and Jesus Christ will be crowned King of all kings on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

From there the saints will go forth throughout the earth
to restore "the desolations of many generations."

Did you know this was in the Bible? Did you know your
destiny as one of God’s elect is written in the Prophets of Israel? The Prophets did
not address their own generation as much as they did ours. That which is written
concerning the sufferings of Christ and the glory that shall follow is directed toward us
on whom the ends of the age have come. Hallelujah!

Isn’t this really a more marvelous message than the
idea of being caught up to Heaven so we can read the comic strips in our mansion on Sunday
morning?

Do you have that God-given passion to grow spiritually?

We mentioned God’s program and His goals and that the
concept of a pre-tribulation rapture is a massive diversionary tactic of the enemy.

The program of salvation, both personal and kingdom-wide,
is outlined in the four great types of the Old Testament. The four great types are:

The seven days of creation.

The seven stages of the wandering of Israel from Egypt to
Canaan.

The seven furnishings of the Tabernacle of the
Congregation.

The seven feasts of the Lord.

Let's take the seven feasts of the Lord. These are our
favorite of the four types, the one we employ most frequently. They may be found in the
twenty-third chapter of the Book of Leviticus.

Passover speaks of our being covered with the blood of the
Lamb.

Unleavened Bread indicates our repentance and water
baptism.

Firstfruits portrays the born-again experience.

Pentecost stands for the baptism with the Holy Spirit.

Trumpets refers to the coming of Christ to wage war
against His enemies in us and also the disciplining of us as a soldier in His army.

The Day of Atonement symbolizes the forgiveness and
removal of all worldliness, lust, and self-seeking from our personality.

Tabernacles typifies the coming of the Father and the Son
through the fullness of the Holy Spirit to make Their eternal home in us.

There are two great goals of the plan of redemption. One
is that we have formed in us the Character of Christ, the iron righteousness and
integrity, the fiery holiness, and the stern obedience to the Father, all the fruit of the
Spirit, and the courage, meekness, and happiness that characterize the Son of God.

The second of the great goals of the plan of redemption is
our entering untroubled rest in the bosom of the Father through Christ such that we always
are rest in God and He in us. We are becoming the chariot, the temple, the eternal throne
of God.

The attainment of these two goals will meet two great
needs. The two great needs are God’s desire for a living temple from which He can
guide His creation, and the need of mankind for righteous government.

We are destined finally to be in the outer image of the
Son of God, as portrayed in the first chapter of the Book of Ezekiel, and in the inner
image of the Son of God, as portrayed by the symbolism of Ezekiel’s temple.

Now, where are we?

We are saying these are grand purposes accomplished by a
grand, Divinely conceived and operated program of redemption.

Can you seen now how the repeated emphasis on grace,
grace, grace, rapture, rapture, rapture is leading the believer away from God’s plan
and God’s goal?

Do not stagger at the greatness of God’s goals for
you and you yet will sit on the throne with Jesus Christ.

We are washed in the blood. We are filled with the Spirit.
These compose the authority and the wisdom and power to enter the Kingdom, the Kingdom
being as we have mentioned above.

What comes next? Not a silly rapture, of that you can be
sure.

After Pentecost comes the Blowing of Trumpets. In our day
we can look for an emphasis on war and judgment, on becoming a soldier in the army of the
Lord.

Following closely is the Day of Atonement. By now you
should be entering the work of the Holy Spirit as He brings to the surface the wickedness
of your personality and is helping you confess these things and get delivered from them.
This is a work of reconciliation to the Father. We have been reconciled legally through
the blood of the cross. Now we are being reconciled in actuality as we learn
righteousness, holiness, and stern obedience to the Father.

Our heart even after we are saved is desperately wicked,
not just wicked but desperately wicked. Have you noticed that? The Lord Jesus is
ready today to remove that wickedness from your heart.

As we "come out from among them" and purge
ourselves of all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of
God, we are received of God and become His sons and daughters.

The final experience in the Divine redemption is the
coming of God to dwell in us, we having by this time a resurrected body clothed with the
Divine Glory that has been stored up in Heaven for us as we have sown our present physical
body to the death of the cross.

Before we can receive the fullness of the Tabernacles
experience, Christ must be formed in us. Christ is formed in us as we patiently follow
Jesus every day, overcoming the evil of the day with the grace given to us. Each day has
its portion of evil. Each day has its portion of grace by which we can overcome the evil.

As we overcome we are given to eat of the Tree of Life,
that is, of the body and blood of Jesus Christ. As we eat the flesh of Christ and drink
His blood, Christ is formed in us. It is the temple, the chariot of God that is being
formed in us.

A nation shall be born at once. Whatever else Isaiah is
referring to, the fact is the Christian Church is in travail today to bring forth Christ
in the believers. The royal priesthood, the holy nation, will suddenly appear for all to
see. Christ is the One who will govern all nations with the rod of iron. Christ is the One
who will rule with the scepter of righteousness. Christ is the One in whom dwells the
Fullness of the Father.

All of these roles, privileges, and opportunities become
ours only as Christ is formed in us! The adamic man receives nothing but the cross.
Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.

Any teaching that does not stress war against God’s
enemies, the disciplining of the soldiers of the army of the Lord, the purifying of our
personality, the forming of Christ in us, the coming of the Father and the Son to dwell in
us forever, is not in keeping with the present burden of the Spirit.

Can you see now how utterly distracting and devastating is
the repeated emphasis on untransformed believers being caught up in their business suits,
overalls, and party dresses to fly away to live in a mansion in Heaven? Can you see why it
would be in Satan’s interests to propagate such unscriptural mythology?

The believers want to be with Jesus. This is good. The
believers want to be in Paradise. This also is good and is of God. It is no wonder that
the believers rejoice at the thought that any moment their troubles will be over and they
will find themselves with Jesus in Paradise.

But this is not what the Bible teaches.

When I had my heart attack I was rushed to the hospital. A
young doctor assured me it was not a heart attack but acid reflux (come to find out I had
that also). However, an orderly (without the doctor’s knowledge) had ordered the
standard tests.

The doctor was comforting me with the thought that with
proper diet and rest I would be fine. He smiled at me cheerfully, a very pleasant, amiable
young fellow.

But the orderly, an older employee, came back with the
news that the test showed I indeed had suffered a heart attack and some damage already had
occurred.

The young doctor was chagrined and embarrassed, as you
might imagine.

I immediately was assigned a room in the cardiac ward. I
have been in other wards in the same hospital for other reasons and I am here to tell you
that the food in the cardiac ward is the worst. It is terrible! It is like they are trying
to remedy all your dietary peccadilloes in one week.

The point is, the young doctor’s intentions were of
the best. A more likable, helpful person could not be found. But the orderly knew the
rules, the guidelines established by untold years of hospital experience. The young doctor
was dead wrong and I could have died from his good intentions.

Do you see the point? I could have said, "Let me out
of here. The food is awful. The doctor said it was reflux and I can take care of that at
home."

If I had done that I would not be distressing you at the
present time with this article.

It is my sincere belief that the teaching of the
pre-tribulation, any-moment "rapture" of all believers in Jesus Christ, no
matter how pleasantly presented, is one of the most destructive of the heresies that has
at any time entered Christian thinking. I base this on the knowledge of the Scriptures I
have (after fifty-two years of study), on the application of contextual and lexical
principles of interpretation, on the basis of logic, on the basis of historical fact, in
the light of the types of the Old Testament, in view of the plan and goals of redemption,
and on my observation of the effect of the doctrine on Christians.

What is the Spirit of God saying? Get on your knees and
ask Him.

Your commentaries will not help you as much as the Spirit
of the Lord will. The Greek text will reveal to you that the parousia, the only
term used for "coming" in First and Second Thessalonians, will take place
"after the tribulation of those days," according to the twenty-fourth chapter of
the Book of Matthew.

The Lord is near you. Ask Him what His will is for you
right now. I do not think you will hear Him saying you are about to be caught up by grace
to Heaven to live in a mansion so don’t worry about a thing. More than likely He will
tell you to prepare yourself and your family for the coming of the Kingdom of God to the
earth.

Ask Him and see for yourself. The Scripture teaches of the
coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth and the Spirit always agrees with the Word of
God.

The Lord bless you as you sail out into new waters.
Don’t be afraid, the waters may be new to you but they have been charted by the true
saints from the time of the righteous Abel.